Saturday, April 3, 2010

Mama Bean posts links on Saturday - April 3, 2010

- Let's start off with some awesomeness, specifically the A-Z of Awesomeness, by Neill Cameron. I don't know who this Neill guy is, but his fancy, alliterative, and extremely awesome alphabet totally made the interweb rounds this week. A half dozen folks that I follow linked to it, and I only follow an infinitesimal sliver of the internet, so you can imagine...something. That it was very popular, that was my point.

- Very sweet NYTimes article about a dad reading to his daughter every night for 3218 nights in a row. They had very specific rules (had to read before midnight, had to be for at least ten minutes) and the people in their life really supported them. Always nice to see the Jaded Media celebrating a feel good story.

- So, I follow a variety of sites I call domesticity blogs. They are kind of a subset of parent blogs, in that the authors are usually parents, but they focus on the activities of making a home. Small Notebook is an uber-blog, with nice regular content about playing house. This post was about cleaning, an activity I suck at (maybe because I spend more time reading blogs about it, than actually doing it.) Judging by the response on facebook, I am not the only one afflicted. I'm looking forward to some cleaning a-ha moments of my own.

- So French Elle put plus-size model Tara Lynn on their cover. And she looks pretty fabulous. I commented on a suspicious lack of double chin, which friends pointed out could be due to knowing how to hold one's head properly, or Jack Lalanne's facial workouts, but I'm going to guess some photoshop work was still involved. The commentary at the ONTD post was also interesting; it seems the fashion industry must either eliminate all fat and imperfection from skinny models, or celebrate (in a way) and accentuate fat in plus-size models, but there is no coverage of the in-between, which is where the vast majority of humanity exists.

- So, I posted this Marketplace report on spinal decompression machines. Now, Marketplace is no friend to Chiropractors, and they execute their unfriendliness in typical journalistic fashion. On the other hand, health-care practitioners of any sort who are abusing their position of trust deserve to be outed. This report says it's about the DRX machine, but really just focuses on the poor behaviour of one Ontario DC who is making supremely unethical decisions. I asked for reactions from my Chiropractic colleagues and thought I'd get more response. Two friends replied that even though the DC in question is abusing the potential of spinal decompression technology, they both find good results with flexion-distraction style decompression. I received flexion-distraction while in college and loved it. This table takes advantage of the actual lumbar anatomy, using flexion to reduce pressure on the discs and relieve inflammation/irritation. And the doctor controls the amount of flexion/pull, instead of relying on a computer program. I've always been a little leery of the automated decompression tables, but I totally recommend flexion-distraction. I wonder if anyone in the PVC does it...

- Well, do you? Superpoop is the king of all irreverent comics. Helpful Jack pointed out these otherexamples. That last one there is particularly...choice. I think I need special absolution for laughing at these.

- "Look at your man. Now look at me." The goal of every funny commercial is to become a funny meme. When a suitable collection of really funny spoofs has amassed, you know you've made it. (Ann asked if Papa Bean smells like WOW. It's funny because it's true...) If you really want to be sure, check if you've made it here yet.

- Darwin Catholic wrote an entry about how silly it is to accept the miracle of the resurrection, and then quibble over reasonable or scientific explanations for other biblical miracles. I called such quibbling apologetics, which Niel was surprised to hear applied to discourse between Christians, since generally apologetics is directed out from the Christian community to convince non-Christians. But in practice, Christians probably consume the bulk of it. We might tell ourselves this arms us with good answers for difficult questions when we're out prostelytizing, but I think it might also be to give ourselves some good answers for our own troubling questions. Anyway, I don't go in much for apologetics myself, feeling like they counteract some of the purposes of faith, and this post kind of summed that up. On the other hand, I'm still not going to turn into a young earth creationist any time soon. (Random follow-up: I recently discovered Darwin Catholic is pretty far removed from my particular faith and political mores. But I still like most of his writing. It's weird. The internet is weird.)

- Wednesday started with two posts of things I want: a snotsucker nasal aspirator, and Vibram FiveFingers. Let's be clear, those bulb aspirators for babies do not work. They are beyond useless, I think they actually make things worse. And no snot is removed from the nose. These little sucker things seem astonishingly useful, and reasonably priced. I'll let you know how they work when I get one - so far Bean's been blessed with only one cold. The FiveFingers just look cool, and Ann tells me they are quite enjoyable. I think they'd be perfect for camping and shmucking around the rivers and lakes in our neck of the woods.

- Final link is to a survey on casual sex. It's a very well-written survey, and anyone can and should take it. Whatever age, whatever orientation, whatever sexual history, we all have valuable information to share. And then my friend L-EK noticed this link could be a cheeky addition to the things-I-want train of thought, and I just had to giggle about that.

Friday turned out busier than expected. I like to fill the day off with fun - dishes from the whole week piled up, wiping my counters in forever, baking carrot cake with pecan cream cheese icing (omg srsly 4get teh cake, eat only icingz nom nom nom), feed and change and clothe the child, assist with caesar salad preparation, dinner with friends, scrapbooking with friends, oh and Beanlet no wants to take nap aaaAAAAAAAAAaaall afternoon. This is why the Link Love happens on Saturday this week. But I will try to make it Not A Habit...oh look! Papa Bean just brought the leftover cake and icing for us to share, what a good Papa Bean :) Happy Saturday!

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